Description
This is a pre-order. It will ship on or around 12/11/26
Victoryland is the Brooklyn-based project of musician Julian McCamman and
Dan Howard. Their 2026 album, My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It, is a
triumphant, despondent, and ultimately fun experimental pop-rock album. A
year on, the record receives the deluxe treatment from new label home Dead
Oceans. My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It (Deluxe) arrives December
11th 2026, on exclusive crystal clear vinyl, complete with new song “The Ugliest
Girl On The Beach” and a new music video for album standout “I got god.”
The sound of the album, recorded between Julian’s Bed-Stuy basement and
Dan’s Williamsburg studio, is that of a bright and beaming collaboration.
Blending lo-fi and hi-fi production, the songs have the glossiness of a
radio-friendly hit mixed with the distortion and rough edges of a home demo.
Every song keeps at least one element of the initial recording, while building
around the loops and half-songs Julian scraped together. The lyrics on the
record span from humorous self-aware popisms (“‘you and I’ will soon be, used
to be ‘us’”) to crushing realities of bitterness (“i’ll never forgive you, that’s how I
keep you close”) and abstract imagery (“mothers wave from doorways, in
ostinato”), all delivered with such an immediacy and fervor that in the middle
of singing along, you wonder if this guy slept much last night.
My Heart wrangles with heavy subject matter – love, disconnection, sexual
frustration, emptiness – but the final statement of the record is about the
cleansing nature of pop music. That, if a song can force you to bliss out over a
hook or a loop, or even make you dance, it can be the spoonful of sugar to
swallow the hard pill with. This is what Victoryland strives to do: package the
most exhausting realities of life, love, and the search for connection in a world
starved of it into a fun 2-5 minutes. And for the runtime of Victoryland’s first
major statement, you might even feel like you’re not alone.
Victoryland as a project originated in Philly in 2023, with their first tape, Sprain,
arriving in 2024, which echoed more of what the Philly scene was dishing out:
lo-fi, tape-recorded rock with a capital R. It was the collaborative efforts of
producer Dan Howard that brought the new vision and sound into full focus.
Dan and Julian had previously worked together on Loving You Backwards by
Julian’s Texas-to-Philly-based band Blood - that experience pushed Julian
toward a more personal process of recording, starting with home demos and
then bringing them to Dan to shape into songs together. This relationship
ultimately led Julian to move to New York, and the recording of My Heart Is A
Room With No Cameras In It.
Much to their surprise, My Heart’s release ushered Victoryland into a whirlwind
of a year. Pitchfork praised the album’s “bright, madcap approach reminiscent
of the New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s Some
Loud Thunder.” Stereogum named it their Album of the Week and proclaimed
it “a surprisingly cohesive scrapbook of sounds from seemingly every corner of
the indie pop umbrella.” The album also received support from Steve Lamacq
at BBC 6 Music and Sian Eleri at Radio 1. After a string of sold-out shows in NYC,
Victoryland later joined LCD Soundsystem on their North American tour and
performed at Pitchfork London, Pitchfork Paris, among other festivals across
Europe.
Cancellations:
Because many payment processors no longer return transaction fees to sellers on cancelled orders, any orders or pre-orders that are canceled by the customer before shipment will be assessed a 5% cancellation fee.
Q: How do limited edition and exclusive releases work?
Limited and exclusive items are fulfilled in the order received and may be subject to availability. If we’re unable to fulfill your order, you’ll receive a full refund.
Q: When will my pre-order ship?
Pre-orders ship on or around the official release date. If your order includes both pre-order and in-stock items, everything will ship together once all items are available. All orders are charged at the time of purchase.
